Statistics of Chinese Outbound Tourists

In the year, a total of 45.8444 million Chinese traveled overseas, up by 11.9% compared to that in 2007. Among them, 5.7132 million went overseas under official assignments, a decrease of 5.3% from the previous year; while those who traveled overseas for personal reasons reached 40.1312 million, up by 14.9%. The top ten countries and regions in the order of the number of Chinese visitors on the first leg of their journey were Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Russia, the United States, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.

The number of Chinese people who traveled overseas as a group organized by travel services was 10.9091 million, 1.0349 million more than in 2007, up by 10.5%. Of them, 6.0355 million went to foreign countries through the arrangements of travel services, up by 20.2%; 4.8736 million traveled to Hong Kong and Macau, up by 0.5%. In addition, 429,300 Chinese people traveled to the frontier area under the arrangements of travel agencies, 6.3% down from the previous year.

17.5570 million Chinese mainland residents visited Hong Kong on the first leg of their tours, an 8.8% increase over 2007. The number of Chinese mainland residents who traveled to Macau was 15.5217 million, a 21.6% increase over 2007.

Top 25 Foreign Destinations of Chinese People

Foreign Countries

Reception of Chinese Mainland Tourists (Unit in 10,000 persons)

Growth (%)

Japan

155.65

6.8

Vietnam

145.90

58.5

South Korea

137.43

4.7

Singapore

71.26

10.0

Thailand

62.39

-13.0

Malaysia

62.26

8.57

Australia

41.31

3.7

Myanmar

33.48

104.4

Germany

25.28

-6.9

Cambodia

22.09

57.2

Philippines

16.27

1.7

India

8.38

20.0

New Zealand

7.35

7.7

Egypt

3.61

9.4

South Africa

3.36

-13.5

Pakistan

2.82

7.1

Turkey

2.54

6.7

The Republic of Maldives

2.51

163.7

Nepal

2.07

-27.7

Hungary

1.65

3.2

Sri Lanka

0.69

-0.9

Cuba

0.43

12.0

Brunei

0.24

-6.0

Croatia

0.11

6.7

Malta

0.08

10.6

Data Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism of People's Republic of China